All you have to do is ask for it, but there is a requirement. What is it?
It is My Own Fault if I Lack Wisdom
James 1:5-8
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Please turn to the book of James. We will be learning from Chapter one, verses 5 this morning. James 1:5 is our text. As you are turning there, I want to share with you a wonderful Proverb that sets the table for us this morning. It is the words of wisdom from wise king Solomon. He wrote,
"13 How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. 14 For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold." Proverbs 3:13-14
Wisdom is our greatest ally for experiencing the riches of life. Wisdom itself is a treasure. But just like a star player on a professional ball team, the player is a treasure, but the player also produces treasure for the team. Wisdom's profit, according to Solomon, is profit that is better than the value of silver and gold. It has value, and it gives value. It is treasure for you, and it produces treasure for you. Solomon should know. God had given wisdom to Solomon to such a point that there had been no one like Solomon before, nor would there be someone like Solomon again, 1 Kings 3:12. Even when we are seemingly poor in every other area of life, wisdom is so valuable that, even in the midst of pain, persecution, trials, and testing, wisdom is the great asset that will get us through it all. Of course we need faith. Faith gets us through, but we also need wisdom, which is intimately married to faith. Please read with me now, starting in James 1:1,
"1 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. 2 Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." James 1:1-8
This morning, let us prepare our hearts for the sacred teaching of Gods' word. The sermon theme is titled as the statement:
It is My Own Fault if I Lack Wisdom [prayer]
/1/
Coming into our passage, I think the first thing we need to recognize is the contextual flow. The contextual flow is that James is writing to the dispersed Israelite Christians. He has launched the letter with the urging to not be surprised concerning the various trials that are encountered. We don't normally think that the trials we go through are producing endurance, but they are. The perfect result that James is talking about is spiritual growth that comes from the endurance. So, this explains the first important thing about this passage, which is the context. Recognizing that this is the context of what James is preaching, James goes on and says,
"5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, ..." James 1:5
Something I think we need to notice is that James just said that endurance through trials has the result of bringing perfection and completeness to us, so that we lack nothing. Notice that. In other words, we lack nothing in the spiritual growth aspect that comes through the testing of our faith. But James also knows that there are people in his audience who actually do lack something. In fact, it is something that can be possessed in one moment, but it may be lacked the very next moment because of circumstances. So, James instantly says, "but." First, James says that testing of your faith, and the endurance produced, perfects and completes your Christianity so that you lack nothing, and then secondly he says, but if you, in fact, have a lack of something, which is the wisdom-lack, (which means that endurance has not provided for this lack of wisdom) then you should ask God for this lack to be fulfilled, perfected, and completed--meaning God will give you the wisdom that you need. We need to take a really close look at the progress of this passage, because the context is important for us to see some things that help us understand what James means.
/2/
This leads us to our second consideration, (and I encourage you to mark this in your Bibles) James has just been speaking of
a) thinking
and
b) knowing.
James says to Christians of the 12 Israelite tribes to consider, and to be knowing;
"2 Consider it all joy, ... when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."
It is not endurance where you make yourself once saved always saved. It is endurance that demonstrates the reality of the fact that you already are once saved always saved. The reason why I am pointing out this considering and this knowing is because these are mental things. They have to do with our thoughts. They have to do with how your mind is thinking. In other words, you consider something as part of reasoning, and reasoning is based upon knowledge. So, James has just said that the dispersed Christians are to consider while knowing. With this part of the teaching down, James goes on to wisdom. This is important because wisdom is the mental thing that ties both considering and knowing together to make sense to us. The definition of wisdom is;
The understanding and application of knowledge to achieve results of the highest quality that are the most sensible, prudent, and beneficial.
This is a broad definition of wisdom. James associates wisdom with understanding in 3:13, when he says,
"13 Who among you is wise and understanding?" James 3:13
Okay, so what does all of this mean? What the context strongly suggests is that James is indicating that if anyone who has just now been instructed about trials in his teaching, and the endurance, and perfection that the testing of their faith produces, still does not get it; In other words, they still don't understand what James is saying, then what they need is wisdom from above in contemplating the knowledge that has just been revealed to them. There are a number of contextual reasons that can be suggested for this. The typical early Israelite Christian of the dispersion, may be thinking that now that they have become followers of the resurrected Messiah in God's Messianic kingdom, there should be safety, wealth, prosperity, and no more sickness in the kingdom of God under the rule of the true Messiah.
Why? Why would any Christian think this way?
Because all of the prophecies concerning Messiah seemed to indicate that this would be the state of all Christians in the kingdom of God. The conquering Messiah would sit on this lavish throne of David over a vast wealthy Israelite empire. But, since safety, wealth, and prosperity, are not guaranteed, and for most Christians at the time, instead of safety wealth and prosperity, there is rejection, persecution, and suffering, plus poverty and sickness while waiting for the Messiah to come back again, then in their wait, they would need to put aside any frustration. They would need to put aside any lack of joy that can come from this kind of testing of their faith. The same thing goes for us. We get the same kind of trials. We live in the same Messianic kingdom. So, we need to pay attention. We need what they needed. They need to be patient, and in wisdom, they need to understand that this is how life in the Messianic kingdom is expected to be--
Surprise! Jesus, our Messiah brought something different than what we 12 tribes of Israel thought was going to happen! What we are going through right now isn't what the Rabbis were telling us we would be going through!
But, (and here is the big point) Jesus is bringing something better than what you are thinking, but the better part is coming in the future glory. Life right now is comprised of various trials. In the meantime, count it all joy. Now we know. This, folks, is wisdom. They need to start considering it all joy, while knowing that the testing of their faith produces endurance through the whole discomforting process of living in the current state of the kingdom while on earth. We need to do this too. There is spiritual growth in all of this. There is completeness in it all, and a perfect result because of it all, but this can only be understood according to wisdom that comes from God.
/3/
This leads to the third point, which is the great necessity for a kind of wisdom that doesn't come according to the flesh--it comes from God. James calls this kind of wisdom, the wisdom from above in 3:17. James explains the supernatural aspects that come from the wisdom from above a little later in his epistle in his rebuke for carnal strife and disunity among the churches;
"17 the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, ... unwavering, ..." James 3:17
Wisdom from above does not stir up carnal strife, and further, it is stable in the midst of strife. So, taking this definition of wisdom from above, and all we have looked at so far, suggests that rather than the Messiah coming in and instantaneously ushering in a victorious triumph over the twin giants of pagan Rome, and wicked apostate Jews, like His forefather David did when he conquered the giant with his little sling shot, the faith of the Christians of the 12 tribes is based upon pure, reasonable, peaceable, unwavering wisdom in understanding that faith gets tested. Perseverance gets tested, but perseverance has its perfect result in the long term. Wisdom in the true knowledge of God, and His will for our lives, enlightens us concerning the fact that this really is the way it is going to be to follow the Messiah. Look around, because what you see is the manifestation of the Messianic kingdom for over 2000 years. Folks, this is it. You've got the church with all of its struggles, and you've got the world which is a struggle in itself--especially as it struggles against everything that has to do with the true knowledge of God. It takes wisdom to understand that suffering and trials in this world don't occur because of naturalism, or because Christianity has supposedly failed, but because this is the way the kingdom looks before its super glorification. And so the testing of our faith in it, produces endurance in it. This is why John Piper poses this observation: and I quote--
I don't know what you feel about the prosperity gospel--the health, wealth and prosperity gospel, but I'll tell you what I feel about it; hatred.--J Piper
Why? Because it's not wisdom. There is no joy in persecution unless you have the wisdom to understand that it is joy. So, we see that there is no prosperity doctrine here. There is no pretensive name it and claim it, blab it and grab it--A Christian lust conceived, is a Christian must received, kind of teaching here for the Israelites, or for us today as a kind of selfish false doctrine to bolster up a culture of spoiled siblings. The doctrine James gives here is the doctrine of victory according to the facts. And so we need to learn from this. It is wisdom and it is so, so important. Remember the definition of wisdom; instead of foolish doctrines of the flesh, the Israelites are going to need to have real wisdom and real understanding to apply this true knowledge of the way things are in Christianity to achieve results of the highest quality that are the most sensible to God, prudent to act upon under God, and beneficial for spiritual growth.
What is interesting about us children of God, is that even though we have the knowledge, we sometimes lack the wisdom to use the knowledge for our advantage. Folks, this is a very urgent problem. This urgent problem identifies the underlying principle in this passage that we need to get for living. What I mean is that we get a lot of Bible teaching in our day. We hear it on the radio. It's all over the internet. We have Christian book stores all over the place. We have multitudes of English translations of the Bible. So, the knowledge is available to us. We've got lots, and lots of knowledge. It's great to have piles, and piles of knowledge, but, we must do something with our knowledge. We are not storing Bible trivia in our brains simply because it is a religious thing to do, or because it is fun to do, or simply because it is our duty. We store the knowledge of the truth in our minds, so that we can use it. That is where wisdom comes into the picture. Godly wisdom is where you understand and apply godly knowledge to achieve godly results of the highest quality of godliness that are the most sensible, prudent, and beneficial for your walk as a Christian. Ask yourself,
Is my life exemplified as a life that is filled with godly wisdom?
I'm not talking about wisdom to win the game. I'm not talking about wisdom to avoid getting ripped off. I'm not talking about wisdom for manipulating people, or getting rich, or staying healthy. I'm talking about the wisdom and insight of being godly in Christ Jesus. Probe your heart:
Do I have a lot of Bible knowledge, but I find that I am not really able to apply it to areas of my life like I need to?
You need wisdom. Ask yourself,
Am I considering it all joy when I encounter the hard hitting trials of life that test my Christian faith?
Do I recognize that endurance, perfection, and completeness is being worked into me by God's sovereign hand in all things?
Many of us here have heard of Joni Eareckson Tada. When she was younger, she was a medal winning athlete. When she was 17 years old, she had an accident that left her paralyzed from the neck down. In her book, Joni, she manifested the supernatural wisdom of God that we all need to get. I want you to listen carefully to every single sentence. Pay special attention to the great detail that she puts into just a few words. What she says is pure wisdom and it is a deep well of understanding that we can all drink from to refresh our own souls. Joni wrote,
God engineered the circumstances. He used them to prove Himself as well as my loyalty. Not everyone had this privilege. I felt there were only a few people God cared for in such a special way that He would trust them with this kind of experience. This understanding left me relaxed and comfortable as I relied on His love, exercising newly learned trust. I saw that my injury was not a tragedy but a gift God was using to help me conform to the image of Christ, something that would mean my ultimate satisfaction, happiness--even joy.--Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni, page 154
Understanding these things requires supernatural wisdom. The question is, Do you have it? The facts are there in God's word. They are like bullet points that are dots of information. Wisdom takes those facts and makes the dots connect in our lives. You and I need this wisdom. In fact, we should be thirsting for it as if we haven't had a drink for days. We should be thirsting for it, because we know that it is life changing. There is no middle ground. If you are not thirsting for life changing wisdom, then you are starving as a fool.
/4/
This leads us now, to consider the fourth principle that we can glean from the text this morning. It is what you and I need to do to get wisdom,
"5... if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, ... and it will be given to him."
Think about this for a moment. James does not give us 12 clever tricks to attaining wisdom. He does not give us a ritual plan, like writing out a bunch of premises in formal logic or anything like that. He doesn't' say to log onto wisdom.com and download the latest wisdom mp3. You don't have to pay money for it. You don't have to journey to the Himalayas' to get it. James says to do one simple thing. You just ask God for it. This is a great privilege that God is revealing to us here this morning so we better take advantage of it. Wisdom from above comes when you ask. Let's consider David's son, Solomon again. Think about young king Solomon?--wet behind the ears but in charge of a vast empire of God's chosen people according to the Abrahamic covenant. Solomon had this privilege. God spoke to Solomon too. God said,
"Ask what you wish me to give you." 1 Kings 3:5
Tell me what you want. Solomon took advantage of the opportunity. He demonstrates to us how we need to take advantage of the great opportunity that God has laid before us. Solomon answered,
"9 Give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil." 1 Kings 3:9
How many of you realize that God already knew that Solomon would ask for this? God knew it, and God also knew that this is the kind of request that is pleasing to God, as we read,
"10 It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing." 1 Kings 3:10
What would you ask for if God said that you could have anything you wish, and He'd give it to you? I've got an easier question for you. What if there was something that is wonderfully life changing that you are guaranteed to get from God because He has already promised it to you, and all you have to do is ask for it, in faith, and you will get it? Would you ask God for it? Of course you would. Listen, The wisdom from above that is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, and unwavering, of 3:17, is the very thing that you will get from God when you ask for it. So, the fourth principle is that you need to ask for the wisdom from above if you really want to get wisdom from above. When you ask, it will be given to you. It's a promise from the great promise keeper.
/5/
This leads us to recognize the fifth principle,
"5... let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach," James 1:5
The fifth principle is that God gives generously, but with something else that is very encouraging. God's generous giving of wisdom to you is not contingent upon you being perfect. In other words, God gives without reproach, or as the NIV translates the Greek, God gives wisdom without finding fault. Now, isn't that encouraging? I know it is for me. Why? Because I'm such a dummy in the first place, that if God decided whether to give me wisdom based upon how much of a dummy I shouldn't be--in other words, on how perfect I am, then God would never give me wisdom! Think about Solomon again. Solomon wasn't perfect. In fact, Solomon was a big dummy. When we look back at 1 Kings 3, we read that Solomon loved God, but we also recognize that Solomon was acting like a dummy by doing something that God did not like,
"3 Now Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. 4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place ..." 1 Kings 3:3-4
The high places were the remnants of the pagan nations. They were made by pagans as places to go to worship their false gods. Even though Solomon wasn't sacrificing to false gods, God had told His people over and over again to tear down the high places, but instead of tearing down the high place of Gibeon, Solomon went there to sacrifice to Yahweh. Solomon should not have done this. Even though Solomon sacrificed a thousand sacrifices to Yahweh there, Solomon was in sin. Nevertheless, (and this is the point) we read of God's grace in the next verse,
"5 In Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said, 'Ask what you wish me to give you.'" 1 Kings 3:5
Immediately Solomon asks for the precious wisdom that we all want. Also, immediately God answers by telling Solomon that He is going to give the wisdom to Solomon, and we notice that God gives it to Solomon without reproach--without finding fault, which, if God wanted to, He could have found multitudes of faults in Solomon, starting with the immediate one of sacrificing on unholy ground in Gibeon. Do you see the reason why I am going over this illustration? It is because it demonstrates the kind of promise we get in James. It is a demonstration of the grace that God has upon us foolish, sin prone people. For us Christians, though, it is the grace of God that comes to us in Christ. None of us are perfect, and so we must understand that God gives gifts to us based upon His grace (sovereign favor)--especially the gifts that He promises, like wisdom from above. But we can't stop there. God loves you so much. You are so valuable to Him. You absolutely must understand this. You start out in God's grace with much more to begin with than what Solomon ever had. You are in the body of Christ. You are in the Messianic kingdom, rule, and reign of the Messiah. You have been saved by grace through faith--all based upon the cross and resurrection of Christ in the New Covenant. So, keep your specialness in mind as we notice the other promise from James 1:5 that goes along with giving without reproach. The other promise we get is that God gives generously. God's generosity to us is so wonderful. He gives way above what we deserve, but He also gives us gifts way beyond what we ask for. Again, when we look at God's favor upon king Solomon, we get a bit of a picture of this generosity that God sheds upon those whom He loves,
"11 God said to him, 'Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, 12 behold, I have done according to your words. ..."
[God did according to Solomon's words in the blessing of concurrent prayer. In other words, God did according to Solomon's words, but God already predetermined to give this to Solomon. God wasn't taken by surprise by what Solomon asked, and so God continues,]
"... Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. 13 I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days." 1 Kings 3:11-13
This is such a beautiful illustration of the generosity of our gracious Father for all of us who are in our Savior who is the king of Kings and Lord of lords. Our Lord told a parable that demonstrates this. Jesus inaugurated His pre-cross earthly ministry by coming to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus told a series of parables to describe how the Father would receive all of those lost sheep who would be saved in Christ Jesus. One is the parable of the prodigal son. The son left the father. He took his inheritance with him and squandered it. This is a picture of Israel of that age. But, the son came back to his father in humility and repentance. The son decides he is going to approach his father and say,
"'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.'" Luke 15:18
But what does the Father do? Does he find fault? Does he reproach his son?
"... his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. ... the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; 23 and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.' And they began to celebrate." Luke 15
A little help is all the prodigal son wants from his father. Just a little bit of mercy will do. But what does the son get from his father? He gets so much more. He gets the royal treatment, where his father showers him with generosity upon generosity. You see, God is generous with us my dear brothers and sisters. Our Father will heap royal wisdom upon us beyond what we can possibly imagine. But with us, it is different than with the prodigal. We have the clear promise of God's gracious provision. It is sitting right here in front of us. It is waiting for you to claim it. All you need to do to get it, is ask for it believing you will get it.
/6/
This leads to the next point. This promise is for all of God's children;
"5 ... God, ... gives to all generously and without reproach, ..."
What this means is that this promise is for Christian Israelites, and it is for all Christian Gentiles. It is for people who already have some measure of earthly wisdom. And it is also for people who have been fools--you know--dummies. It is for all of God's children, no matter how old; how young; how rich; or how poor. The reason why I bring this up is because God does not want any of us to try and disqualify ourselves based upon some sort of self condemnation, especially if you think you aren't very smart, or that you can't figure out spiritual principles very well. If you are confused about precepts from God's word, or you think you are foolish, then please understand what God is saying through His word; you are exactly the person that God wants to answer with the gift of wisdom when you pray. You are the one. So, one of the hindrances to God's children acquiring this God-given wisdom, is that they believe a lie, and they don't really think that they can change. It is lack of faith, where they are looking at perceived failures, rather than looking at God's promise. If you are thinking this way, then your real problem is not that you can not have wisdom. Your real problem is as James says a little later,
"You do not have, because you do not ask God" James 4:2
We need to throw that immature thinking away, and we need to look forward to the answer of God's promise. What will happen is what God said about Solomon when he responded to the promise by asking for wisdom. God said,
"12 behold, I have done according to your words." 1 Kings 3:12
This is what God wants to do for us, His New Covenant children. So ask--ask believing, and it will be given unto you.
/7/
This leads us to consider the next principle that James lays out;
"6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting,
A lot of times, we find teaching in the Bible concerning prayer, but the teaching itself was not meant to be a teaching specifically on how to pray. This is one of those places. One of the first things we can uncover with this, is that there is a difference between authentic prayer, and superficial, fake prayer.
Authentic prayer is:
a) done in faith in God,
and
b) done in faith that God is really listening to you with an attentive and concerned ear when you pray to Him,
and
c) authentic prayer is done in Biblical faith in the promise of God found in God's word.
Folks, we need to think about this, because there is way too much superficial prayer going on today. Superficial prayer is really doubting prayer. There are people who pray, and the whole time they are wondering if God is really listening to them. They are wondering if God really cares enough to consider their prayers. Or, they are wondering if God is so small that He has ordained everything to happen, but in His determination, He hasn't ordained that He answer your prayers of the desires of your heart according to that same determination. All such thinking is lack of Biblical faith. But sometimes something else is going on. There are Christians who are wondering if they are really worthy enough to pray to their Father.
Is this what you are thinking?
To think this way is also lack of Biblical faith. Nobody is worthy enough, except Christ, but this is the point, because in Christ, in salvation, God makes us worthy with the worth of Christ through His purchase of us on the cross. But it takes faith in Christ to believe this. But there are other ways to pray in lack of Biblical faith. If you bow your head and mumble off a quick prayer before a meal, or before you go to bed, or at the request of someone, and you are praying just to get a some words out of your mouth so that you can move on, and in the whole habit, you are not considering that you have just addressed the God of the universe to pay particular attention to you because you, after all, are praying to Him, (which when not superficial, is a practice that appreciates, in reverence, God's particular attention), and along with your half hearted, mindless ritual, you are not thinking, I really want God to answer me with a yes answer concerning my Biblical request, and I know that He can, and I know that He will answer me if I am lining up my will with His will according to His sovereignty, especially when He guarantees a particular answer from His word, like giving wisdom, and so if you do not appreciate His attention with that very real sense in mind, then make no mistake about it--your prayer is superficial, and faithless. The writer of Hebrews explains that faith involves both assurance, and conviction.
"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of the ancient times gained approval. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. ... 6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." Hebrews 11:1-6
When we pray in faith, based upon the word of God, where God says that he gives wisdom to all without finding fault, and that He gives it generously, then we are not praying superficially. God will reward us. Folks, when you pray, you need to have strong assurance of things hoped for, and strong conviction of things not seen. Go to God believing that He is a rewarder who has you in mind as you seek Him to bless you with His great generosity--especially in the promise of filling you with wisdom. This is what James is talking about,
/8/
and this leads to the eighth point we need to draw life giving strength from,
"... for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." James 1:7-8
Unless you are convinced, and convicted that there is a superficial kind of prayer that is lame, limp, and, lacking, on one hand, and that over on the other hand, there is a super spiritual kind of prayer that looks to the Lord in authentic belief in His promises concerning prayer, then you will not understand why James calls this kind of man double-minded. People all over the world claim that they believe in Jesus for life and godliness, but when you look at their lives, you see a life that acts as if it is in doubt of the fact that God is supposed to be of supreme importance in our lives. On certain key occasions, when it seems beneficial to them, they will act like a Christian. They will talk like a Christian. They can even pray out loud like a Christian. But overall, their lives are seen as teetering one way, and then the other. They are driven and tossed by other forces of this world that sway them away from white hot principled Christianity. The core issue of this kind of instability is a lack of Biblical faith in God who says that we reap what we sow in this life. The core consists of a lack of faith in the higher importance of the eternal spiritual realm of what really matters the most. It is manifested in a displaced faith in all the trivial pursuits of this temporal world. The imbalance can be seen when God's spiritual treasure is put on the shelf, and other distractions are put in its place. A sea driven man or woman does not put biblical church attendance in the fellowship community of the saints on the pedestal of high priority. A wind driven man or woman would rather live by the philosophies of the world than according to the doctrines of the Bible. A storm driven man acts more like he believes in worldly standards of success in life, than he does in Biblical standards of leading the Christian life. A wave driven man or woman, when shown from the scriptures that they are required to do these things as a matter of God's precepts, will ignore the word of God, in lack of faith that there really is a consequence to their disobedience. All of it is lack of faith, and it is manifested in instability in every pocket of their lives. You ask,
How can you say that it is manifested in every pocket of their lives?
It's easy--James states it bluntly as he punctuates his point by saying that such a one,
"8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."
Not some of his ways; not a little bit of his ways, but all. What this means is that one's prayer life reflects the rest of one's whole life! Yes, James is laying out a lot of doctrine here in a couple of sentences, and it is all related. This instability of double minded men, who are either groping around trying to figure out what it means to be spiritual, or they are thinking they have arrived in their spirituality, (but they really haven't gone anywhere) is the same instability, that, according to God's word, taints the prayer lives of those kinds of people. Because they are unstable, they pray in instability. Such people should not be surprised when they don't receive anything from the Lord. In fact, James says that they should expect that they will not receive anything from the Lord. My dear brothers and sisters, God wants single mindedness from us. Whenever the trials of life come upon us because of the curse of the world that is groaning in its imperfection, Romans 8:17-23. God does not want us to be ignorant, foolish, and unwise. Wisdom speaks to us with a serious tone, but at the same time it comforts us so that we rightly understand the whole ordeal of a cursed creation as truly a spiritual problem of spiritual trials, rather than naturalism, and godless philosophies about survival of the fit, or the fate of the lucky, or the one who wins something called the game of life by hammering away at the curse the hardest. Trials and testing must come, but we need to understand it all with the eyes of God. Here is wisdom; I am going to give it to you beforehand, so take note and prepare yourself for it now:
It is wisdom to understand that trials and testing are doubled up in this life for God's children.
In other words, the whole world must deal with the curse of sin that has oppressed humanity for over 7000 years. But, Christians must reckon with the fiery ordeal that comes upon us because we have been transferred out of the domain of darkness, and into the kingdom of God's Son. Now that we are in the kingdom of light, the kingdom of darkness hates us and is warring against us at every corner. Further, God is molding us in every single circumstance He sovereignly ordains. Understanding this each day at the office, or when you are teaching your children, or when you are buying toys for them, or when you are rejected by family members because of your faith, or you think you keep on losing the game of life because you thought winning was what the world told you winning was supposed to be, is the understanding of wisdom.
Again, wisdom is recognizing, acknowledging, and understanding that Satan is against you, and God is molding you in this fading life that is just a vapor as James says in 4:14.
I urge you, my fellow saints, Make it your habit of heart felt intentional prayer, to seek that particular kind of attention of your Father that comes in single minded petition. Don't mince words. Go straight to the promise. Ask God for the wisdom that He told you He is going to give you. Over and over, I am faced with difficult theological concepts. I get overloaded with knowledge, but though my mind is packed with knowledge, I find that I can't quite get the depth of understanding that I desire. I need wisdom, so I pray for it. I get hit by the fist of life--I need wisdom. I pray for wisdom all the time. I know God answers my prayers. I do not doubt that he gives me wisdom to understand each difficulty that arises to perplex me. I strongly encourage you to do the same thing. Remember the theme of the sermon this morning.
"It's my own fault if I lack wisdom."
We must humble ourselves way before the trials of life end up humbling us. We must become like children who eagerly await a certain present that our parents have told us that they are going to give us. As a humble, needy, expectant child asks his father for the anticipated gift, we should continually ask God for wisdom in each and every circumstance. James does not say that if you keep asking in each perplexing situation in your life, then because you keep asking, then you must not be having faith. We must be careful not to read into James' words, certain things that are not there. God gifted Solomon with wisdom to the point that Solomon was the wisest of all men. We receive wisdom from God when we ask, but this does not mean that when we ask, we instantly become the wisest people who ever lived. That title was reserved for Solomon. God has given us a measure of wisdom to discern when we lack wisdom to understand and operate in certain areas of our lives according to God's word. So, we must ask our Father like children who ask their fathers, over and over again for good things, and their father always says yes, and then gives the good things. My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory, Philippians 4:9. The main point is that you must not look for any excuse not to ask for wisdom from above. Ask always, and ask always believing that God answers always. To not ask for what you need, concerning what you know you lack is just as much a lack of faith, as not asking because you don't think you will get it. It is the lack of faith that eclipses the impotent notion that you think you are asking so much that to ask so much is a lack of faith. When you first got saved, you learned that God answers your prayers. You learned that he heals. You learned that he provides jobs, witnessing opportunities, and heals relationships, and all kinds of things according to prayer. You also learned to ask God to ask God for these various things throughout your daily life. But, you didn't get saved and then ask God to provide all your desires to you just one time back there in the past, and then thought that you would never need to ask God to provide for you again later on when you lack in that area, or a need arises. If you ask God to provide for you in some area that you asked Him to provide for you at other times, it is not lack of faith that you do so. This is the point, and the same principle applies to praying for wisdom when you need it.
I urge you to recognize that the faith trials of Christianity are to be considered joyous. To understand this, you need wisdom from above. Ask believing that God will reveal to you the deep riches of His means of spiritual growth in the midst of the dark sin filled culture that we are passing through in our journey to the next life. Once you receive this wisdom, cherish it, defend it, practice it, share it, and believe it no matter what the cost. To do so is simply to practice that very same wisdom.
